🫠 Ask a Guide Anything

Welcome to Tricycle Day. We’re the psychedelics newsletter that always gives you options. For example, you can read this now, save it for later, or print out hundreds of copies to hand out at the grocery store. 🖨️

Life is full of impossible choices.

Beach or mountains. Cake or pie (vegan and GF, duh). The red pill or the blue pill. And now, for the psychedelic-curious among us… psilocybin or ketamine?

Both are legal (in the right contexts), both can be therapeutic, and both will change your mind, as the Pollan-ator would say. But they're far from interchangeable.

So for today’s newsletter, we asked our network of licensed psilocybin facilitators: How does psilocybin therapy differ from ketamine therapy in terms of experience or outcomes?

Here's what they had to say.

Back in our day, if you wanted to do a psilocybin retreat, you had two choices.

Break the law or fly to another country. (Uphill! Both ways!)

Times sure have changed. Now you go to Boulder and work with licensed facilitators who've guided 1,000+ clients and gladly abide by state-approved safety protocols.

Chariot's next five-day retreat in April includes two mushroom journeys, integration support, and a private room at Hotel Boulderado. It’s all above board, so you can feel safe diving under the surface.

8 guests max. Mention Tricycle Day for 10% off.

If psilocybin is a deep dive, ketamine is a bird's-eye view. Clayton Ickes describes the experiences in terms of directionality: “Ketamine helps us zoom out. From that distance we get a new perspective. Psilocybin helps us zoom way in, and also provides us a new perspective.”

Jeremy Nickel gets at a similar idea more poetically: “Psilocybin often feels like being taught by something larger than oneself—relational, emotional, mythic. Ketamine can feel like stepping outside the story altogether, offering relief through spaciousness and perspective.”

Char McKendrick adds: “Psilocybin often feels deeper and more somatic, allowing mind and body to process together through imagery, memory, and embodied awareness. Ketamine is typically more dissociative, helping create distance from entrenched patterns.” In other words, psilocybin tends to pull you into your emotions, while ketamine temporarily pulls you out of them.

Then there are the practical differences. To start, psilocybin sessions are considerably longer. Clayton notes, “I offer seven-hour psilocybin sessions and two-hour ketamine sessions.” And those longer sessions may translate to longer-lasting results: “If we're talking about pure depression outcomes, psilocybin tends to provide a longer and more durable effect than ketamine.”

Amy Charlesworth doesn't sugarcoat the trade-offs: “Ketamine can bring rapid symptom relief for some people, but it often requires a series of sessions and sometimes maintenance to sustain benefits.” She adds the uncomfortable caveat that ketamine “can also be extremely addictive.” Psilocybin, however, she describes as “non-addictive and extremely safe,” with outcomes that feel more “values and life narrative” based.

Scott Burd sums it up neatly: “Psilocybin often emphasizes narrative, meaning, and long-term perspective shifts, while ketamine may offer faster relief from symptoms like depression.”

If you're hoping one of these facilitators will just tell you which medicine is superior, sorry, not gonna happen. Jeremy gives it to us straight: “Neither is 'better.' They serve different nervous systems, moments, and intentions.”

Jillian Gordon gets specific about when each shines: “I love psilocybin therapy for people who are emotionally stable and have already engaged in trauma work. Psilocybin can be destabilizing, which is the point. It stirs things up and shakes things loose.” By contrast, ketamine “is a good tool for people who need to find solid ground. If there is a recent tragedy or new grief, ketamine is great to move through the emotions without being flooded by them.”

Clayton adds that ketamine “generally offers a more gentle introduction to psychedelic work, whereas psilocybin is a bigger commitment.” But whichever path you choose, Brenda Davies reminds us that “both are most effective when paired with integration and therapeutic support.”

Cacao is an entheogen you can take daily. By itself, it gently opens the heart. For the bold, its natural MAOIs enhance psilocybin. Kokoleka’s is ethically sourced and traditionally processed for max potency.

The facilitators nailed the experiential breakdown. So we'll stick to the boring (but important!) logistical stuff that probably won’t come up at your integration circle.

Psilocybin therapy is only legally available in Oregon and Colorado so far. It's also entirely out of pocket. No insurance company is touching it yet.

Ketamine, however, is available at clinics coast to coast. And while IV ketamine infusions are still mostly paid out of pocket, the FDA-approved nasal spray version (Spravato) can be covered by insurance, depending on your plan, diagnosis, and treatment history.

Of course, for those willing to venture out of the regulated space, the underground hosts a whole menu of other medicines to consider.

Great, we just made things more complex, not less. Kinda took a page out of psilocybin’s book there, huh?

Thanks to Gretchen W. from West Valley City, UT for submitting this week’s question. 🫠

Reply to this email to shoot your shot. If it’s a juicy one, we may select it for a future issue.

That’s all for today, Cyclists! Whenever you’re ready, here’s how we can help.

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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. The use, possession, and distribution of psychedelic drugs are illegal in most countries and may result in criminal prosecution.